s/v Field Trip

We've made a couple of big changes aboard Field Trip over the past several months.  We significantly upgraded our solar installation & added wind generation. Admittedly, I'm not a big believer in wind & solar energy cost effectiveness (no subsidies) for private consumption.  Technology is getting better and the return on investment improving.  The principles are good, the raw economics not so much.  There are no subsidies on a boat to go green. For us, it is less about cost effectiveness, and more about reducing our need to burn diesel to supply our energy needs.  We have a finite capacity (159Gallons/600L) and prefer to use this for water making & when absolutely necessary - propulsion (that's why we have a sailboat...grin).  We like the idea of being completely 'off the grid', having complete reliance on the weather for energy generation.   The trick is weather.  Some days it's sunny.  Some days windy. ...

Keeping track of Field Trip can sometimes be a 'Needle in a Haystack.  With limited connectivity, our sometimes rapid pace, we've decided to do a much better job on keeping our readers up to date on our location.  While Facebook has been updated fairly regularly, especially our float plans on longer trips, we are going to be keeping our blog up to date as well. There are two primary methods we are using beginning this week. SPOT .  We have not used spot to keep track of Field Trip since our long passage from Brazil.  It has gathered dust.  We are now committed to log each and every anchorage when we arrive .  So, you will be able to click on our ' Track Us Here ' tab to see exactly where we are. Google Maps .  We are also logging our actual sailing routes and keeping a full history of every single overnight anchorage of Field Trip.  It's been painful, but we've now updated this new map for the entire trip since December 2011.  Ther...

For the past four weeks, we have been really movin’.  We had been in Georgetown, Exumas longer than we ever imagined, about 6 weeks, so we were ready to move on.  One of the last days there, we attended a seminar on the beach about sailing windward, and we met a couple traveling the same direction we were.  It was then, that a “buddy boat” relationship was born.  A “buddy boat” is exactly what it sounds like, a boat that travels with you for a portion, or all, of your journey.    In the cruising community, you meet new people all the time, but if the stars align, plans merge, friendships form, then - poof - buddy boats come into being.   Beach seminar about sailing to windward Walter and Meryl on s/v Flying Cloud, a Taswell 44, have been sailing for years near Seattle, but this is their first year to brave the great, blue waters beyond the bays and harbors near land.  I’m not sure they knew what they were in for when...